Zero.

Chapter Five

Day 22

"YOU'RE NOT paying attention!" One yelled, never taking a break from the combo punches she was throwing at my face. I dodged the last one too slow and her nail clipped my lower lip. Being away from Headquarters meant we had to find a new place to train. We were in an abandoned warehouse a few miles out of town. The space was soundproof and good enough to serve as a secure location for us to train and speak openly about the mission.
"Yes." I blocked her kick, trying to regain my balance.
"I." Punch.
"Am." Punch.
Before my fist made contact with her jaw, she grabbed it midair, spinning and kicking me in the gut. I doubled over, holding my stomach and wiping the blood that started to trickle from my mouth.
"No you're not." She huffed. Crossing her arms, she looked down on me accusingly. The arrowhead tattoo on her ankle gave me an idea and I used her distraction to kick her legs out from under her. She dropped ungracefully to the matt.
"Who's not paying attention now?" I chuckled.
"Still you." she sighed, sitting up so that she sat cross-legged in front of me.
"Seriously, what's up? If you say nothing I promise I'll punch you." she asked.
I rubbed my jaw, hoping it wouldn't swell up in the morning. "You already punched me" I pointed out.
She narrowed her eyes, glaring at me. I sighed, talking about what was on my mind was never my strong suits, but I could tell she wouldn't let this one go.

I had been interring with Benjamin for a few weeks now, and I still hadn't been able to pinpoint anything about him that indicated that he needed to be eliminated or where he could have possibly hid the documents if he did steal them.

My role as Sarah McKinley ensured that I was by his side Monday to Friday 9 to 5 and I still hadn't found anything incrementing. I knew agents were skilled liars; we had to be in order to take on so many different roles. But Lee had to be the best actor I had ever encountered....or he was simply wasn't lying.
Maybe Chief got it wrong and I'd been investigating the wrong man this entire time? Sure he looked similar to the mug shot Chief showed us but it was a far fetched idea to assume that he was capable of stealing the documents and the serum to stay young. At that thought, I felt a dangerous spark of hope started blossoming through me. If that was the case then I didn't have to end his life. Maybe I should talk to Chief again, make him tell me what he was hiding...
"Earth to Zee." One yelled, waving her hand in front of my face.
"Sorry." I mumbled, blinking myself from my reverie.
"I'll forgive you if you tell me what's wrong." she prodded, flipping her hair over her shoulder with an irritated scowl.
"How do you feel about this mission?" I asked hesitantly.
"What do you mean?"
"Does it feel wrong to you?"
She hesitated for a moment before answering. "We don't have to like it, we just have to complete it." I raised an eyebrow at her monotone answer. She sounded like the poster child for Agents. Surely I couldn't be the only one who had an opinion about our mission.
"Yes, I know that. But does this feel right?" I asked again. She shifted her weight and dropped her eyes.
"Not really."
The relief I felt at her words felt like it would knock me over.
"It feels like somethings off, right? Like we're not being told the truth, or at the very least not all of it." I rushed over my words, the relief I felt at not being alone in my feelings was still fresh. Even though I knew she agreed with me, I could tell that she was still unwilling to admit it. For her, it was probably the first time she had ever felt wary about a mission. I on the other hand knew this wasn't the first time I had been hesitant to complete my task.

Although this feeling was not new, I couldn't recall the last time I had felt this strongly about my orders and Chief was never very forthcoming about details, but I couldn't think back to a time he had hidden information that was related to the success of a mission.

But how reliable were my memories anyway?

"Maybe we always feel this way about a mission. We are planning to kill a man and blow up an entire building after all. I would be worried if we didn't even feel the slightest amount of guilt." One responded.

I was shaking my head before she finished talking. I knew what she as doing. It was what I had been trying to do for the last few weeks: convince myself to trust in the mission.
"No, that's not it." I argued.
"Then what could it be?" she retorted. "What, you think there's some secret conspiracy going on that Chief isn't telling us about? Hate to break it to ya, but we are the secret conspiracy, Zee."

My hope deflated.

"I'm just saying, don't you think it's a little odd that Chief wants us to kill him and blow up Pembroke? He used to be an agent! Shouldn't this be a capture mission? I understand him having to be trialed in HQ for the supposed betrayal, but what Chief is having us do is a tad bit extreme don't you think?" I tried again. Surely I couldn't be the only one thinking this!

"He's a traitor Zee, he deserves what's coming to him and I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe you should just trust Chief, what's he got to lie about?"
"Forget it." I sighed, standing up.
"Nope, you don't get to do that." She replied, standing with me, we were both bare footed and eye to eye so I felt the full magnitude of her glare.
"Do what?" I retorted.
"Shut me out!" She yelled

"I'm not shutting you out, I'm ending the conversation. There's a difference" I bit back.

"Oh whatever. Regardless, you've been scatter brained since this mission started and I need you at 100%. You need to let this go Zero, last thing I need is to have to keep an eye on you and Lee"
"Yeah, like I'm the one who needs supervision." I snorted, remembering a mission where she had gotten a little too close to comfort with a Prince we were supposed to be protecting.
"What's that supposed to mean." she glared. I realized my slip up too late. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion while I tried to think of a cover up.
"Nothing. I'm just saying you don't have to worry about me messing anything up. I know what I'm doing. I'm done training" I finished, walking away from her. My anger had fizzled out as quickly as it had come.

Agent One was many things, but unperceptive wasn't one of them. I could only hope that she wouldn't think too hard on my words. The last thing I needed was to add evading her to my problems. I had hoped that we would work on this together, but I knew now that she wouldn't help me. So, I would figure out what was off about this mission on my own. We were on day 22 of our 90 day mission and I would exhaust every possible option before putting a bullet in Benjamin Lee